Area and Country Studies Subject Guide
Introduction
This guide will help you explore locations around the world. Sections include:
- Country and city reports
- Government
- Economics
- Demographics
- Religion
- Travel information
- More resources in the Library
Find a location on Google Maps
Find your country or city to learn more about its place in the world. Scroll in to search a location and then click to view a larger map.
Country/City Reports
Country and city reports help you to gain an understanding of the history, geography, culture, and current issues of your area.
Comprehensive reports covering statistics, geography, people and society, economy, energy, communications, transportation, military, and country comparisons.
Department of State: Country Information
Current country reports published by the U.S. Department of State. Includes information about government, current political relations, a photo gallery, fact sheets for major cities, and more.
Comprehensive articles on both countries and cities that cover history, geography, economy, government, demographics, culture and more.
Country profiles that detail history, politics and economic information. Includes audio and video clips and links to current news stories.
Country overviews, including travel information, photos, and articles highlighting interesting cultural and geographic features.
Country reports compiled by researchers at the Library of Congress. Best for researching historical development.
This guide lists countries of the world and links to their government, tourism and social media websites.
Government
Directory of current world leaders and officials. Lists only names and titles, but the information is very current and thorough.
Department of State: Human Rights Reports
Reports covering a wide range of issues related to human rights conditions in a country. Build a custom report targeting specific information and statistics.
Interparliamentary Union (IPU) Reports
An international organization promoting cooperation and dialogue between governments. Published reports review current world issues, particularly human rights topics.
Demographics
Demographics study a population’s age, race, economic status, education levels, birth and death rates, income levels, and more.
A wide range of demographic information to give a thorough picture of a country’s population. Very current and complete statistics.
World population counter and a map of world population and economic information.
Economics
Contains very current and comprehensive statistics for economy, energy, communications, and transportation. Also includes a brief economy overview and history.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
OECD is an intergovernmental organization that researches and tracks economic development issues and emerging economies. Use the Topics tab to view the topics they research.
US Census: Foreign Trade Statistics
A wide range of information related to foreign trade and economic statistics of the United States and World countries.
Research data compiled by the Worldbank, which tracks world economic development. Their Annual Report includes overviews of their current work and a review of the world economy.
Religion
Assemblies of God World Missions
Reports about current AG World Missions projects, missionaries, needs and goals.
Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA)
ARDA provides religion data collected by scholars and research centers around the world, presented in a wide variety of tables, spreadsheets, summaries, reports, etc.
Department of State: Religious Freedom Report
Reports on religious freedom and diversity in world countries, which may be edited to contain specific information and downloaded as a pdf.
Data and analysis about current trends in world religions.
Travel Information
Information about vaccines and current travel health advisories.
Dept of State: International Travel
Includes embassy and visa information, safety and security, laws, health, and current travel information.
Department of State: Health and Insurance
Information about health care, health insurance and care providers during travel out of the U.S.
This online travel guide has a wide variety of information for countries and cities, most related to tourism interests but also history and cultural information.
Find more in the Library
Search the library catalog
Search the name of your country or city in the library catalog to find print and ebooks for your research. Go to the library catalog.
International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences
Search for your country in the index of this encyclopedia set to find articles on cultural and social topics. This resource is available in both the reference collection and online databases.
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Search the name of your country or city in this online reference collection to find a variety of articles on topics including history, society and culture, religion, and more. Go to the Gale Virtual Reference Library.